that's all the time we have. thanks so much for watching. time to hand it over to don lemon. "cnn tonight" starts now. see you tomorrow. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. this tells you everything you need to know about how this white house operates. president trump seriously considered replacing attorney general jeff sessions with scott pruitt. yes, the same scott pruitt, that one, the head of environmental protection agency, who's under fire for renting a cut rate condo from a pair of energy lobbyists who has been under the microscope for pricey plane tickets at taxpayers' expense and whose sources tell cnn wanted to drive through the streets of washington, d.c. with, lights and sirens blaring. a special agent who refused to do that was demoted. and this interview, well, pruitt

did with fox news definitely dnl help things. >> i was misinformed. >> have you made mistakes? >> i think this is something that needs to be corrected. >> do you take responsibility? >> a mistake by my team. >> do you take responsibility? >> i'm fixing it. >> do you take responsibility? >> i'm fixing the problem. >> in the face of that, the president told reporters that he thinks pruitt is doing a great job. >> i think that scott is doing a fantastic job. i think he's a fantastic person. >> trump denying today that he is planning to replace sessions with pruitt. sarah sanders telling cnn the white house does not have any plans for personal changes at this time. which is pretty much what this white house says every time there is a new rumor of a staff shake-up. it is not exactly a statement you can take to the bank. this is a president who proved again today that he will say whatever he wants wlfr he wants.

>> this was going to be my remarks. it would have taken about two minutes. but that, would have been a little boring. a little boring. >> you have to admit, that is humorous. but it is a president who absolutely has no regard for facts. the facts don't suit his purpose at all, a president who turned his planned remarks on tax reform today into a tirade on immigration. >> they're not putting their good ones and remember my opening remarks at trump tower when i opened, everybody said oh, he was so tough and i used the word rape. and yesterday it came out where this journey coming up, women are raped at levels that nobody's ever seen before. >> the president offering no evidence to support that claim

from central america. they're fleeing violence and risking lives to come leer. then there is another of the president's fact free claims. >> many places like california, the same person votes many times, you probably heard about that. there was like to say that is a conspiracy theory. not a conspiracy theory, folks. millions and millions of people. >> it's conspiracy theory. he is spreading a conspiracy theory again, there is absolutely no evidence, none, that millions of people voted illegally and the fact is the president himself disbanded his own commission investigating voter fraud back in january. his i.t. director in a sworn you court document saying the commission "did not create any preliminary findings." that means they found nothing. so they disbanded the commission. and today the president for the first time breaking his silence about stormy daniels.

>> did you know about the payment to stormy daniels? why did michael cohen make it? >> you have to ask michael. michael is my attorney. as a rule to ask michael. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> no, i don't know. >> the actress' attorney says we look forward to testing the truthfulness of his lack of knowledge concerning the $130,000 payment as he stated on air force one. and then there is this. sources saying that corey l lewandowski said i'm not answering your f'ing questions. but facts is what americans deserve. the real question is will we get them? let's discuss now. i want to bring in our senior white house correspondent and molly ball. good to have both of you on. good evening. jeff, we could start with any

number of breaking stories today. let's start with the president expressing confidence in his e.p.a. chief scott pruitt and despite the ever growing list of controversy surrounding his cabinet official, he even floated replacing sessions with pruitt this week. what do you know about that? >> don, certainly a number of devel developments here today. but as for scott pruitt, we do know the president has been thinking about this for several weeks we know that jeff sessions, attorney general, is the most, you know, the biggest member of the cabinet with a target on his back. he is furious for him for more than a year. one way around confirming a new attorney general is to appoint an acting attorney general. the only person who can be appointed as an acting attorney general is someone who has been confirmed by the senate already.

so scott pruitt, the former attorney general from oklahoma, a member of the president's cabinet, could have slid into that role. so we know the president has been thinking about that as early as this week. but the question now, don, is that out the window given all of these allegations? we know the president is watching that interview on fox news. he is watching it, i'm told, just off the oval office in the study and did not think it went very well. he was trying to clean it up but, of course, you know, as we learned more about what scott pruitt is doing, how he is leading the agency, the president is torn by two things. one, he likes what he is doing in a subinstantive matter. conservative groups like what he is doing by rolling back a lot of obama era regulations. does he believe he is fit to be a member of his cabinet? one reason this is different than the other cabinet

secretaries, scott pruitt has a lot of support because of what he's doing at the e.p.a., much different than the va or the department of, you know, health and human services with tom price, on and on and on. this case is different. >> okay. so i'm glad you laid that out. listen, i have a long list of infractions from pruitt, molly. >> sure. >> i'll read some of them. i'm wondering why there is not on file. he rented a room for $50 a flight from the wife of a prominent lobbyists, pricey plane tickets, a family trip to disneyland, trying to secure big pay raises for aides which he says he didn't know about. then today we learn that pruitt's security detail was asked to use lights and sirens had when traveling through d.c. plus, reporting that several epa officials were side lined or demoted when they raised concerns about pruitt. again, i can only imagine if this happened under any other

administration, why isn't this a five alarm fire? drain the swamp, remember? >> you are making trump look good or not? i think trump used this from the perspective on policy and with his base and as jeff is saying with conservatives. pruitt is making him look good. they keep him popular with republicans in particular. on the other hand, does this scandal make trump look bad? unlike sessions, pruitt hasn't done anything that trump regards as disloyal. so does the scandal rise to a level of making trump look bad? it certainly could turn that way at any moment. we have seen trump turn on a dime. he decides that a scandal is too much and cuts the person off. almost everyone in the cabinet is not someone he has a close personal relationship with. if he does feel personally loyal to you, he will keep you on through all manner of things. >> can i ask you this?

i'm just looking at the numbers here. fine, you know, these helping the base. but just looking -- taxpayers are paying for this. if you just look at it. so $70,000 for two desks. $100,000 a month private plane charter. more than $43,000 to secure a booth. $18,000 to spend on the prep work, $25,000 on the booth itself. security detail nonofficial business, $17,631 for a trip to morocco. first class plane tickets following hurricane harvey. just over $120,000 that his trip to the vatican. and then over two million dollars for his security detail alone. that's a lot of taxpayer money. come on. >> i'm not defending it at all. it is pocket change in the scope of a multibillion, trillion

dollar federal budget. but i'm just trying to understand, you know, where trump is coming from and when he decides someone is worth firing and when he's not. frankly, it's impossible to understand. it seems to come down to which side of the bed trump woke up on. at this point, i think he is conflicted as he said on air force one between believing that pruitt is a good person who is doing the right things on policy and then believing that the scandals like this do make him look bad. >> okay. >> don, the bigger question is scott pruitt was a leader in the -- he was leading member, the attorney general from oklahoma leading this fight against climate change and other matters. i think the bigger point is this fits into the theme of the president not hiring the best and brightest. some of these things, this administrator is accused of doing and has done certainly would not pass the smell test in any, you know, county attorney's office, state senator's office. it is striking to me how flagrant he has been of some of the rules and things. so i think it goes again about

the quality of person he is hiring. that said, what the output of his office is very important to a lot of business leaders, conservative groups. so do not take that into account. that is more important than that $50 a night apartment here in washington. >> thank you both. i appreciate your time and you reporting. i want to bring in national correspondent for the atlantic. james, good evening to you. the president floated the idea rev placing attorney general jeff sessions with pruitt. with all the scandals swirling around him, is there a tone deafness here do you think? >> i guess the calculation that donald trump's making all along is that playing to the people who got him to office is the strategy that keeps him in office. every other president in modern times has found it worth while to try to expand beyond the constituency that got him there. so this is an extension of what we've seen now for year and four months. >> and then there is the president in west virginia today, james.

it was billed as an officially white house event and he spent time talking about electoral politics. you know, you took note of this, these immigration comments. what stood out to you? >> what stood out is two things. one is on the fact of immigration. this is a reprise of the way donald trump first introduced himself a year and a half before the election. they're sending rapists, not our best. not only is this insulting to the country of mechl kexico but really out of touch with the way that the fiber of america is now. been doing long reporting project with my wife over the last couple years. the only places you find this kind of raw anti-immigrant sentment is where immigrants aren't and aren't planning to come. west virginia of all 50 states has the lowest proportion of foreign born people there and that's where you can have this kind of rhetoric. the places where immigrants are coming on the whole for all of the adjustment difficulties, people recognize this as part of

the american renewal. that is one strike thing. the other is donald trump's on gos going sense th going sense that he is a character in a tv show as opposed to someone leading a nation, leading a government, having people follow what he wants to do. so this is, again, it's what got him here so he is sticking with that. but it is unusual. >> a character -- do you think he is playing to his base? i'm wond erlg wondering if thera strategy looking torlwards the d terms. >> certainly, the performance of congressional republicans, which i think historians looking back on this time will be even more focused on than the way donald trump himself behaves. the fact that they will not challenge him on anything suggests they still are more afraid of challenges from the right, challenges from trump loyalists than they are of challenges from the middle. and so maybe they share the same calculation that donald trump does which is the most important thing he can do is to rally the

people who are originally behind him and just keep playing this same theme. i guess we won't have -- we've had incremental market tests of that with the special elections, most of which have gone the democrats' way. for the next six months we're talking about the stakes in the midterm election. that is the real market test of the strategies. >> james, let's talk about there are a few themes that you're seeing in president trump's favor recently. tantrum, strategy and vengeance. >> i was thinking about this in the trade negotiations with china. as we discussed before, i lived in china for a long time. and you see on the one hand i think that donald trump's strategy towards china in a way it's like the build a wall rhetoric towards mexico. if mexico had 1.4 billion people, where it's something that sounds good and sounds threatening and sounds like it is being tough, meanwhile, the chinese are much more -- even

though they're vulnerable to trade wars and they have lots of trade practices that need to be addressed, they're much more strategic and calm and revenge the best sort of cold and saying okay we're going to target boeing which is your leading exporter. we're going to target soy beans and pork which is the farm states. and so they're just doing it as if they have a plan as opposed to sort of an emotion. so i think that difference between emotion and plan is the one we're seeing with the trade threats coming from one side and the other. >> mr. james fallis, appreciate your time. thank you so much. when we come back, remember whether president trump said over and over and over he'd only choose the best people for his administration. now it seems the only constant in this chaotic administration is scandal. whatever happened to draining the swamp? as a control enthusiast,

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know, as the trump world turns. one more episode of the inconsistency and hypocrisy of this presidency. he came in promising to drain the swamp. and what we've seen he is just brought an entirely new species of swamp things into d.c. a lot of them are rich. we thought, you know what? he is appointing all the rich people to the cabinet, steand they're not going to have to be corrupt. turns out they're just as construct but his base doesn't seem to care. i think the rest of us are watching this and eating popcorn and drinking soda wond wlaeerint is the next shoe to drop? >> the interesting thing is, you know, every day i come in i'm not surprised anymore. i'm just like well, here it is. but i'm just sort of surprised,

scott, that, you know, small government conservatives are not really saying anything about this. especially when you considering how much money, you know, scott pruitt seems to be spending or wasting, however you want to put it. and then sources telling cnn the president considered replacing sessions with the e.p.a. administrator as recently as last week. does this seem like the attorney general's position is always in jeopardy here? >> well, a couple things. number one, i think scott pruitt is under attack largely because he's been the most effective member of donald trump's cabinet. they have not gotten a lot of things done. but at the e.p.a., scott pruitt took the mandate seriously and he has system atticly d-- systematically dismantled the regime. >> who is attacking him? >> i think he's under attack from all quarters. he's under attack from disgru t

disgruntled employees, a lot of people right now because he's been effective. i think this has nothing to do with anything but his flat effectiveness. >> that is really -- first of all, i don't think he's under attack. i think he's doing things that are despicable and that should be your position. i mean, i'm shocked to hear you as a republican not starting out with saying this is not what our party stands for. the corruption, taking money, taking advantage. wanting special privilege. that should be the opposite of a conservative point of view. what kind of a nanny state are you in favor of now because you have the trump administration up there in washington, d.c.? >> look, i think that that scott pruitt had some judgement issues on a few things. i also think some of the things he's been accused of are not true but regurgitated as though they are. he didn't buy expensive desks.

there was a proposal and dent come to pass. they didn't have a charter jet service. there was a proposal and didn't come to pass. his travel patterns are not different from any anybody in the obama administration. he is operating on travel the same way his predecessors did. >> he worked for the obama administration, let him respond. >> i hope lisa jackson is not listening to this. i hope she is some place doing something because her head just blew off her shoulders if you said she was spending millions of dollars to go to disneyland tlachlt is ju that is just not true. i understand that the level of defensiveness. we want to defend people on our own side. but we're hurting the country when we defend anybody doing anything. listen, i agree with you. scott pruitt is very effective at hurting america's environment. he has done everything he can to increase the amount of poise an and pollution in our country. and for that, you might want to applaud him. but that does not give him a free pass to take advantage of the country's purse strings.

listen, i'm shocked that you don't have republicans -- the first thing you would have said is you don't do stuff like that and then you pivot. you don't even make the pivot. you go straight ahead and say this guy is only under attack because he's being effective. you know that's not true. >> and i want -- >> one of the problems is this is not napping a vacuum. there is one more chapter. in the sense that we've heard about excesses by ben carson, by men uch inwhether it is 130,000 dloorz or $130,000 lunch tables or jetting around to see an eclipse. this is one more instance of what we're seeing after donald trump promised to be different. and the republican party again and again looks the other way whether it's stormy daniels or tariffs or deficits or overspending. they look the other way. if this were a democratic

administration, people would be brought in to testify. and there would be investigations. there would be much more scrutiny. the republican congress continues to give this administration a pass even though they are behaving as anything but traditional republicans. >> i want to move on. scott, i think you should have a chance to respond to this. >> yeah. let me just tell you about the politics of scott pruitt within the republican party. if you talked to any republican, small business person, farmer, anybody in the sort of the conservative pro business wing of the republican party in middle america and you say what's the one thing about the obama administration that you hated the most? almost universally they'll tell you it was the epa. the epa crushing businesses, jobs, and farmers and they see scott pruitt as the champion that reversed the bad decisions. that's why i think you've seen the conservatives rally to his cause tonight. >> scott, did you see the interview that he gave ed henry? >> yeah. it was terrible.

i'm not going to say scott pruitt is the best in the world at giving interviews. i'm explaining the politics of this. >> right. to me, that interview he gave -- >> admit the mistakes, atone for them and set up better processes. >> i give him kudos for holding his feet to the fire. i will say to you, the problem with that interview is -- i mean first of all, it was so bad he made betsy devos look like albert einstein. more than that, went around the white house to give his buddies and cronies a huge pay raise despite the white house saying not to do it. that should really bother us. as republicans, as americans, as taxpayers. that is our money that he is misspending. and it should bother all of us despite partisanship. >> i just want to say this myth that the obama administration was crushing small businesses, killing -- we had a sustained growth. we came out of the great recession with sustained growth that president trump has continued at a slower rate. and, you know, it's mythology

that he was -- we were able to -- and especially places like california, to have clean air and a growing economy and add jobs. there is a way forward that doesn't require poisoning america's children in the name of economic development. >> that has to be the last word. and with that i say thank you. and don't miss the van jones show with former vice president al gore. and then you also have ryan kugler, director of the mega hit movie "black panther". that is the van jones show saturday night. when we come back, the president breaking silence about his alleged affair with stormy daniels and daniels' lawyer is claiming victory over what he said. did president trump just put himself in legal jeopardy?

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the president breaking silence about stormy daniels denying he knew about the hush payment to the porn star. >> did you know about the $130,000 basement to stormy daniels? >> no. >> then why did michael cohen make it if -- >> you have to ask michael.

michael is my attorney. you'll have to ask michael. >> do you flow where he got the money to make that payment? >> no, i don't know. >> well, i want to talk about this now with former federal prosecutor and harry litman is a former u.s. attorney. gentlemen, good to see you. thank you so much. we have a lot of ground to cover. if we can keep it brief. i want to cover a lochlt president trump says he didn't know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels. from your perspective, what impact could his statement have on this case? >> i think it's devastating for his side of the case for the trump team, him and the llc because that contract between daniels and the other side has a number of promises that are made by donald trump in that document where he releases her of claims and makes various representations. there's flo way he could do any of that if he didn't know about the agreement. so it's very -- that's a real

problem because either he did know about the agreement and he's lying now or, you know, michael cohen and that llc fraudulently represented that trump was releasing her of claims, et cetera. and i'll tell you, you don't need to be a legal genius to know that if one side that's making promises and a contract didn't know about it, you don't have a legal contract. >> harry, if true, does this invalidate the nondisclosure agreement? >> it does. he is spot on. look, trump made some promises as a party. he didn't know anything about it. it's no more of a contract for him than it would be for you or me. and, in fact, as he said, it was induced by fraud. he told her, hey, that's going to -- trump will make performances and he never could do it. that's the issue before the court now. that's how they want to keep it out of arbitration. to say that the contract was never formed if it was never formed, it doesn't go to arbitration. and everything is invalid. >> is it like you putting a down payment on a car and buying it from me and promising i'll pay

the note when it's in your name? is that kind of similar to what you guys are saying? to dumb it down for me? >> it's like, don, if you -- if i said you were co-signing on my loan for the car, you never signed and then we asked you about it, you're like i have no idea what you're talking about. didn't know anything about that loan. that would be a real problem for the car company to loan the money based upon the fact you agreed to co-sign for the loan. >> don, you promise and then drive it away. that's the situation. >> got you. good answer to the question. i have to ask you about the new filings and special counsel robert mueller's investigation. prosecutors revealing that they're using information related to the search of paul man man i for the's belongs and

that is information related to on going investigation that's are not the subject of either of the current prosecutions involvement advantage manafort. that's a lot. is that a different subject? what could that mean? that's a lot -- i don't understand what's going on here. >> sure. so the reason that he's obtaining information regarding phones via search warrant is because he's obtaining what is called -- it appears he's obtaining h obtaining historical cell side information. he's getting information about what cell towers they were in con be tact with at the time they were making calls. it doesn't give you precise location but tells you the vicinity that phone is in. right now i'm in chicago. my phone is hitting off of a cell tower in claug. it would tell you that i'm not in tennessee or can dashgs i'm in the vicinity of downtown chicago. and so that -- what is interesting about that is that typically financial crimes are not crimes where the location of the person matters. in other words, it's not like,

you know, if you're trying to move money laundering, it doesn't matter where paul manafort was. what matters is where -- what he was doing financially. so what is interesting is that this suggests that the location of those particular phones matters, who they were in contact with, you know, what location they were in and maybe he's trying to prove that they were having a meeting with the person at a certain time or trying to back up the testimony. >> harry, we reported that mueller is looking into trump's businesses. investigators are very interested in michael cohen's role in business deals with the trump organization in georgia, was bei kazakhstan and russia. way tonlt get yo i want to get your reactions. >> what is the bottom line? russia 2016 is the bottom line. manafort's current charges don't have to do with that. but we see many avenues in which mueller is right now sort of

moving east from the statesmana for the and gates and others moving west from russia and others and trying to bring together with the charges of potential conspiracy or collusion. i think that's the bottom line and it would be the jackpot of the whole investigation. >> renado? >> regarding michael cohen and that news, i have to tell you this just underscores what -- how foolish michael cohen has been to talk so much on the record and on television and in print about this investigation. and act in such a reckless way by talking about his loyalty for trump and how he would do flig f anything for trump. i think he is angling for a pardon. it is a foolish strategy when you're under investigation by robert mueller. >> appreciate your time. when we come back, corey lewandowski's interview before the committee going completely off the rails, descending into

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tonight's sources telling cnn that corey lewandowski shouted and cursed at house democrats investigatesing russia's involvement in the election. let's talk about this and other topics and there is a new book out. tim scott is bhe, congressman and trey gowdy of south carolina. and they're the co-'authorize of the book, unified, how our unlikely friendship gives us hope for a divided country. we need. that we're going to talk about it in the next segment. i have to get to the news of the day, gentlemen. good evening. first congressman gowdy, we're going to discuss your book as i said in the next segment. i want to start with cnn's new reporting that corey lewandowski swore at democrats during the committee saying i'm not going to answer your f'ing questions. can you tell us about that? >> i was certainly there for the first interview. i'm shoe sure you and your

viewers recall that there was ambiguity what questions he would answer. when he came back for the second time, i had an oversight hearing. i was not present for it. those were not the exchanges from the first hearing. i don't doubt that those were the exchanges during second hearing. i just was not there for it. >> so they're reporting congressman gowdy that republicans on the committee sided with lewandowski saying he spent hours before the panel answering questions pertinent to the inquiry. lewandowski saying i had to repeat multiple occasions that there was no collusion and cooperating. basically saying they were used foul language and he was responding in kind. does that -- does the witness get to decide what is relevant here? >> no. i mean there are certain parameters. there is the parameter of relevance. i've been critical of legislative branch investigations. i'm actually part of serious investigations in the executive branch and i've been critical of congressional investigations.

partly for this reason. i mean, if i'm investigating you for collusion, i don't know that i should go back to when you were 12 years old and ask you questions from elementary school. but some of my colleagues have gone back 25 years. and if there is a reason for it, if it deals with motive or intent or common scheme, then i'll hear you out. but between the leaks and the irrelevant questions, i just -- i think your viewers should have a confidence in mueller's investigation, the senate investigation may turn out to be serious. i hope it is. but, you know, adam shift said he had evidence of collusion before we environment staerted. that's not a great way to get an investigation off. and i just -- i don't doubt all that happened. i don't doubt that corey got frustrated. but i'm sure other witnesses have been frustrated with leaks and what they perceive to be irrelevant or unfair questions. >> unless you want to respond to this, senator scott, then i'll move on and ask you about something else. >> let's mover on.

>> yeah. so cnn is reporting that special council robert mueller's team questioned two russian oligarchs and sought information from a third, they're asking whether these wealthy russians illegally funneled cash donations directly into donald trump's presidential campaign. what does it mean if russian money was used in the election? >> i think it's important for us not to draw a hypothetical but the good news is the mueller investigation continues. what we all need to know is have a great clarity about what happened and why it happened. one of the things i said earlier is that getting to the catalyst of what started this process is incredibly important. so as all this information comes to light, we'll be able to understand and appreciate what impact russia had on our elections and frankly there after. >> yeah. so senator scott, another breaking news story tonight. president trump floating the idea of replacing attorney general jeff sessions with embattled epa chief scott

pruitt. he is more concerned with the running of the justice department and ending the mueller investigation than the ethics firestorm surrounding pruitt? >> i saw that breaking news on cnn. i will just say that any process for nominating another attorney general will be a long process, frankly. scott pruitt certainly has challenges on his hands. i don't see that happening any time soon. and certainly i'm not sure that the senate would be receptive. >> congressman gowdy, i'm wondering with trump replacing the attorney general with the goal of firing mueller rise to the level of obstruction to you? >> well, it depends on why he fired jeff sessions. if he fired jeff sessions because he was trying to get to rod rosenstein and then bob mueller, i guess that's a criminal, legislative constitutional injury question. if you fired jeff sessions because, you know, jeff sessions robbed a bank later on tonight,

no, that would not -- i think we would all agree on that. it depends on why he fired him. i don't think it's going to happen. and i don't think can you fire bob mueller and by the time we see all the pieces being played out, i think the senator is right. it will be a really difficult confirmation process. i frankly think it will be a difficult confirmation process for anyone. it's a 51-49 split in the senate. jeff sessions is the former united states senator. so i don't doubt whatever sources may have said that. actually, i do. i don't think jeff sessions is going anywhere other than being subject of some episodic criticism. >> did you say you don't think mueller is going anywhere either? you don't think he'll fire muler? >> oh, no. i don't think the president can fire mueller. but assuming i am wrong as i sometimes am from a legal standpoint, no. i don't. i said it two weeks ago. i know i have friends on the right that don't like it when i

said it, i'll say it again, if you're innocent, you should act like it. and part of being innocent is not talking about firing the person who is investigating you. that is free legal advice that i'll offer for anyone who is in trouble right now. if you didn't do it, act like it. >> we need to reinforce the -- the american people deserve to have this investigation completed. we need to do nothing, nothing to interrupt this investigation. it is in -- it is one of the ways we can reinforce americans' confidence in their government. there is important. >> i want to save time to talk about your book. stay with me, both of you. i appreciate you talking blt news of the day. when we come back, there are plenty of things that divide the country. i want to know what these two gentlemen think we can do to come together. we'll be right back. take sereniy for weakness. do not misjudge quiet tranquility with the power of 335 turbo-charged horses lincoln mkx, more horsepower than the lexus rx350

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>> yes, we've been friends about five years before that, perhaps that's the most important part of the foundation of the story which is that after a racially motivated shooting dylan ruth comes in to start a race war in the city that started a civil war. for me to turn to trae gowdy a white guy from the state with a rich and provocative history op race said a lot about the foundation of are our friendship and how unlikely friendships can transform the story, republican or democrat, black or white, even if you don't philosophically fwree on the issues. if you can form an unlikely friendship america will be better. >> do you -- did it take charleston -- it bring you together closer, congressman gowdy? or were you guys close before that? >> no, i loved him from orientation in 2010, the fall of 2010. he is impossible to not like. so i think from his perspective it was the shooting at emmanuel.

what tim helped me do i have never been black a day in my life. i've never been stopped because of the color of my skin. i've never been asked for an id while the person in front of me or in back wasn't asked. i've never been stopped from going into the capitol and i don't where a member pin. and he has been stopped going in the capitol and he does wear a member pin. if i want to understand what it is like to experience life as a person of color, particularly in the criminal justice context i can only get that perspective from him or another person of color. so -- so what we're trying to encourage people to do is listen -- listen without prejudice. listen to other people's perspective, not trying to persuade anyone to come around to our way of thinking. just the adviciveness i think is kor oweding the american soul. keep the contrast. i like it. i got a 21-year-old that doesn't agree with me on anything politically. and i love her more than anything in the world. so keep the contrast. but see if we can lose the

conflict. >> having said that about you having been black a day in your life and you don't -- feign to understand i'm asking you both this question. starting with you senator scott. we have heard the white house what they have had to say about the shootings of unarmed black americans what the president said about african nations, fine people on both sides in charlotte, kneeling nfl players sobs, you know mexicans are rapists. so is the president a racist senator scott? >> i don't think he is a racist. can he be racial hi insensitive the answer is without question. he and i sat down at the oval office after the charlottesville incident we saw the world from two different vantage points. miep mine was a history based on reality my experience and my greater's experience, my mother's experience. i wanted to have that conversation. my criticism is why the white house called and said let's set down and have a conversation to

see if there is a path forward that we could find. we did not come to an agreement on the issue of race. we did come to an fwreemt on how we could help those folks living in distressed communities. and that led to a legislative victory that will hopefully lead to more people living in distressed communities like the one i grew up, single parents household lining i grew up in having more opportunities to experience the american dream through legislation called opportunities zones that was passed with the president's support. so while we had not found -- go ahead. >> no, go ahead sorry. i think you were going it is to say you had not found common ground on the race issue but working towards it is that what you are saying. >> exactly. we're looking for weighing to move the country forward. because if you are on two different pages it doesn't mean you can't find something that you work on and for me my goal is to find public policy that tells young folks like myself trapped in and meyered in poverty feeling hopeless and frustrated and sometimes really irritated there is a leonard to

be hopeful. the american dream is achievable for folks like me and that's part of the message i brought. >> i'm running out of time. producer will be mad. i got to ask you, representative gowdy, because the same question, but i mean when you look at the president, you talk about the divide in the country ant political. and the president seems to appeal only to his base and not you know even senator scott couldn't come to skens on race with the president. do you think he is racist? does he need to reach out to people of color more. >> well, i don't think he is a racist. i've never met president trump and never had a conversation with him impossible for me to judge someone's motives if i don't have exposure to him other than snippets on the news. >> politics has been advicive from the day i got there. it didn't begin with pruch. there is a reason president trump won. it was the frustration and the unmet expectations of at least enough people to win the electoral college.

one of the reasons i'm leaching politics is it is inhirntly advicive. and we have figured out how to commercialize people's anger and frustration. and i don't want to see the world through that prism. i don't want to see. >> got to run. >> i i want to see the world through people of good conscious and people who are not. >> the book is called "unified." here it is. pick it up. "unified, how our unlikely friendship gives us hope for a divided country." thank you, gentlemen. i appreciate it. we'll be right back. fire fighting is a very dangerous profession.

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